Landon's ER visits...

Landon at Children's Hospital. Can you tell he doesn't feel well?

Getting a hour long Albuterol treatment. He cried through most of it. This was also hard for mama and dada. :(

I realized that I haven't blogged about Landon's ER visits.

July 26th was Landon's first ER visit. Hugh and I woke up around 7am and realized that Landon had slept straight through the night. We were shocked because he normally wakes up around 5am and wants a bottle. I looked in the monitor and saw him laying there awake. I went in picked him up and went into the living room to change his diaper. As I unzipped his pj's I looked at his chest and it looked like he was struggling to breath. He was breathing really rapidly and was just laying there looking at me. I quickly picked him up and rushed him in our room where Hugh was. I told him,"I think he is having a hard time breathing we need to go to the ER!" I started to panic. I was really scared. Landon wasn't making much noise and was just laying around. Hugh had to calm me down. Thank goodness my sister in law, Emily, and my brother in law, Steve live down stairs. Hugh ran down woke them up and asked them to care for Caiden while we went to the ER. I also called my sister Jamie to come and help them.

When we got to the ER, at Stevens Hospital, there was no wait. They checked his oxygen level and it was low he wasn't getting enough. I should add that Landon had a cold for the last couple of days. So he ended up needing 4 nebulizer treatments and a steroid. We spent half of the day in the ER. Hugh and I weren't quite ready to bring him home yet. They kept wanting to discharge us but we felt like Landon still wasn't breathing normally. They had informed us that he may still wheeze a bit but as long as he is active it means he is getting enough oxygen. They diagnosed him with Brochialitis, which basically means respiratory distress. They sent us home with instructions to nebulize him every 4 hours even through the night until we visit his pediatrician.

That night I set my alarm to check on him every 2 hours. I was so worried that he would start to wheeze again. We saw his Dr the next day. He told us to continue to nebulize him for the next 2 weeks every 4 hrs except for at night, we could let him sleep. He hated to be nebulized at first but quickly got used to it.

After this incident I am always paranoid when Landon gets sick. I make sure to keep a close eye on him to make sure he is breathing well. There has been 2 colds since this incident that I have had to nebulize him for slight wheezing. Then came the evening of December 13th...

Landon had another bad cold and started coughing. When he starts coughing is usually when he starts to wheeze. So I kept a close eye on him that day. Late afternoon I noticed he started to wheeze, so I gave him a nebulizer treatment and it seemed to help. But after only 3 hours he needed another treatment. After that treatment I put him to bed. Hugh and I checked on him and noticed he was breathing rapidly for someone who is asleep. So I woke him up, gave the monitor to Steve and Emily, so they could watch Caiden, and decided to bring him to the ER again. This time we brought him to Children's Hospital.

When we arrived at Children's it was about 11:00pm. The nurses checked his oxygen levels. He was getting enough but as they put it, "Fighting hard for it." They ended up having to give him a very strong albuterol treatment. The Dr informed us that it was a higher dose then most adults received. He had to keep a mask on for a hour long, which I should add was quite a challenge. Landon screamed for about the first 30 minutes of the treatment because we had to hold the mask on his face. We finally got him to settle down and he watched, Finding Nemo, for the last 30 minutes. Landon also had to receive another steroid. This visit was especially difficult because every time a Dr walked into the room Landon would FREAK out! Its no secret that Landon is extremely attached to Hugh and I. He has quite a fear of strangers so the hospital visit was especially difficult for him and his personality. The Dr actually informed me that they haven't had a child freak out like he did in a long time...thanks doc! :) I don't blame Landon for being afraid though, the Dr's came in the room with face masks on that would have scared me too. Poor little guy! We finally were able to go home at 3:00am. We were EXHAUSTED to say the least. Landon was awake the entire time. Hugh and I got home and went to sleep and got a total of 2 hours before Caiden was up. Landon had a total of 6 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period. He was such a little trooper and surprisingly wasn't very cranky the next day, wish I could say the same about myself! :) This time the hospital gave us a inhaler to use, which makes things much quicker. The inhaler has a mask on one end that I put on Landon's head. I push the inhaler, the medicine goes in a chamber that is connected to the mask and he inhales all the medicine. Its great and super easy!

We had a follow up with his Dr. I asked if Landon has asthma and he informed me its hard to say and you really can't test babies at his age. We basically have to wait and see if this continues with every cold. They also informed us that there are many babies that will get respiratory distress when they get sick and in a few years it just goes away and is never a issue again. So we really don't know at this point. It is still stressful on us every time he gets sick. Every night when I put Landon to bed I pray for him and ask God to heal his little body. I pray he doesn't have Asthma and that there will be no more ER visits.

We love you Landon!